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Team building on a budget

How well your staff works together has a direct impact on the ministry that happens during weekly services. If you're constantly dealing with personality conflicts, poor communication and inefficient practices, others will see the impact of those issues on Sunday morning.

Fortunately, you don't need a big company budget to improve relationships and develop your team. Here are a few simple ways to grow together as a staff:

1. Read together

Read articles from various publications or blogs with your team and discuss them during staff meetings. Hearing what each person took away from an article reveals how that person thinks.

This gives everyone a chance to get to know each other better. Discussing articles is also a great way to learn from outside experts and from each other.

2. Become your own mastermind group

A mastermind group is one made up of people who share common goals or aspirations and are interested in helping each other succeed. During a mastermind group meeting, each person shares a challenge he’s facing or an issue she’s trying to resolve. The other members of the group ask questions to provoke critical thinking and offer ideas on how to handle the situation.

Your staff can become its own mastermind group with each person or department presenting their challenges each week. Investing time in helping each other solve problems and developing creative solutions builds comradery within the team.

3. Share lessons learned

After a big service, event or project, have the department or team responsible for that effort share what they learned along the way. What worked well that they would do again? What didn't work and how would they handle it differently?

Celebrate the wins together and respect the vulnerability and trust needed to share their failures. Encourage each group as they relay their lessons learned.

4. Have fun

Bring doughnuts and coffee one morning or cater in lunch and spend time together over a meal. Catch up on family news, share the kids' latest antics or chat about the newest movie you've seen. Having fun together and talking about topics other than work provides an opportunity for team members to get to know each other better.

These small steps can help you develop a close-knit team that can get in the trenches together and make amazing things happen.

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About the Author

Deborah Ike is the president and founder of Velocity Ministry Management: a company dedicated to helping church leaders grow their churches and create a life with healthy margins.

With several years of experience as a consultant, project manager, and risk manager in the corporate world, Deborah launched VMM to serve the church. She is the author of three books and writes for several church-related publications.